So far, everything has gone according to plan – VG
So far, everything has gone according to plan
By Knut Espen Svegaarden
ULLEVAAL STADION (VG) Half the collection is done. So far, absolutely everything has gone according to plan for national team manager Ståle Solbakken (54) and his team. Can it continue?
This is a comment. The commentary expresses the writer’s position
Imaginary scenario, in the coach room at Ullevaal Stadium before the national team gathering, where Solbakken sits with coaches Kent Bergersen and Brede Paulsen Hangeland.
Bergersen: – What can we count on in the first matches, away against Serbia and Sweden?
Hangeland: – If we are good defensively, we can clear points in both games.
Solbakken: – The ideal is to win, six points, some Haaland scores at a very early stage. Then we can save him in parts of the matches such that he is obvious for the last two, against Slovenia and Sweden.
Bergersen: – Yes … haha.
Hangeland: Haha … especially.
For very likely it was not really. But then that was exactly what happened. After the two most difficult, in the beginning, matches in Norway’s pool, Norway stands with six points, Haaland has scored three, no players have been injured – and Haaland has been rested for 39 of 180 minutes.
It has, so far, during the collection been ideal, everything has gone according to plan. Against Serbia, the goalkeeper game voted so well that Norway kept zero. Against Sweden, the referee was, if not Norway’s friend, then at least no twisted opponent when Morten Thorsby got a penalty kick early in the match.
Both situations, plus the fact that Norway has one of Europe’s best goal scorers, tipped two even matches in Norway’s favor.
The famous margins have so far gone Norway’s way. But it is not accidental either. Nothing is random for this national team management.
The Danes call it “playing into hell”, a very good term, in my opinion. If you do very well, then luck often comes in addition. And the presentation to the national team management is carefully planned, system, opponent, player types. Solbakken and the assistants are not afraid to change the team, at least offensively.
Here it also comes into play that Norway now has so many good offensive players, several of them in the biggest leagues, that it is possible to switch without weakening the team.
We must remember that the situation around this collection is more the club life of the best clubs: A Norwegian national team has never played four matches in 11 days, as they do now. Even during the World Cup in 1998, where Norway played four matches, they came as close as the matches against Serbia, Sweden (two matches) and Slovenia do now.
And here it is a clear advantage that the national team manager, quite recently, led a team (FC Copenhagen) that had such an everyday life at times.
Ståle Solbakken knows that he must thin the best players, but try to rest them when possible. Of the most important offensive players, only Martin Ødegaard has played every minute so far. Mohamed Elyounoussi has rested for 17 minutes, Sander Berge for 16 minutes, Haaland for 39 minutes and Alexander Sørloth for 45 minutes.
So far, the national team management has gambled that the five backs hold. Marcus Holmgren Pedersen was taken a minute before leaving for Sweden, otherwise it has been the «last man standing» on the rest. And it has worked up to perfect.
What now? On Thursday, Slovenia, the weakest team in the pool, will come to Ullevaal. Solbakken can gamble, rest Erling Braut Haaland, use Alexander Sørloth as a striker from the start – and hope that it is enough to beat Slovenia, so that Braut Haaland is rested for the second meeting with the Swedes. My is about Braut Haaland, naturally enough, and he did not look directly at Tuesday’s training, playful and nice, brilliant mood and keen to train his right foot …
He got that training again for against Sweden, so to speak.
Erling Braut Haaland will probably start against Slovenia – if he feels ready.
He wants more goals.
It’s that simple.